nixluva wrote:BasketballJones wrote:D'Antoni's been a crappy coach with the current roster. Not that it's been a great roster, but still....Anway, we'll just have to see if the Knicks get some decent players - then let's see what he can do with them. I don't see any good reason to "like" D'Antoni at this point.
Mike D'Antoni is recognized throughout all basketball as a guy with serious X and O strategy. It's not for nothing that other coaches not only use his schemes, but ask for his input in coaching. The Olympic coaching thing is a testament to that as well. Players who have played for many coaches are amazed at his coaching acumen. His old team couldn't wait to get back to using his system as much as possible. He's not perfect and few coaches are. Still he's the right kind of coach for when you have a team full of talent. He may have looked out of his element with a team built to tear down, but he will show his worth when we have talent.
To be honest system coaches always look bad when they don't have the players to run that system. It's understood that if you have a system coach you need a roster that can execute. A guy like LB doesn't really need a special roster cuz he's basically looking for guys to give max effort on D and play conservative on O so as not to give up fastbreaks, create turnovers, or play out of control. He wants to slow the pace and grind it out for a close win. His teams margin of victory is always small.
MDA is looking to create a lead that will be hard for a team to overcome by playing at a high efficiency and high pace, while causing the opponent to play an inefficient style at a pace they don't want to play at. MDA wants bad shots taken, at distance to create long rebounds for fastbreaks. He wants to shut down the drving lanes and play the passing lanes to further increase fastbreaks. He doesn't want to slow the pace at all. So he doesn't want aggressive D that leads to fouls and FT's. He wants clean blocks, steals and forced long jumpers.
By doing this MDA's teams usually score at about 50% and create a lot of Assists, while holding his opponents assists and FG % down. His teams usually have a high point differential and must do this to win. This isn't a grind it out type of style. This style usually helps to overcome more talented teams advantages, as it did when the Suns went to the WCF's without Amare. The team got smaller with even less post play and still they were able to overcome huge odds. but if you put great players in this system it's likely to be a style you can win a title with. That's the idea that DW and MDA are trying to win with. Put great talent in this system and see how far that takes you.
I think there are two ways to look at D'Antoni's two years in NY. If you think he is a good coach you concede that he has mailed it in the past two years. If you think he is a bad coach you judge him on his performance, the drama he created, the devaluing of assets, the apparent communication problems, the playing of marginal vets with expiring contracts over first round picks, his apparent refusal to play big men, and his smug I am better than the guys on my roster attitude. If you think he is a good coach you think his success in Phoenix was based on his brilliant, innovative style, his setting up a system to get the most out of his players. If you don't think he is a good coach you point to his entire nba tenure, the fact that he loses at an incredible rate when Steve Nash isn't on his team, the fact that he only won with an mvp and two or three all nba players on his team. I do not think he is a good coach. I think he proved that over four years when he didn't have nash and his teams were horrible. I think he proved that over the past two years when talent, potential, upside and the franchises future was ignored and guys who were limited vets that displayed maturity and professionalism and did not require coaching and had expiring contracts were played over young players with talent, upside, and were supposed to be part of the long term future of the team.
